LOCAL SHERIFF DEFENDS ARMED 80-YEAR OLD WHO TOOK MATTERS INTO HIS OWN HANDS: “I plan on buying him a box of bullets whenever this all gets cleared up.”

Apr 26, 2016

According to a press release from the Fairmont Police Department, an 80-year-old Fairmont, WV man used deadly force against three people attempting to rob him Tuesday morning.

The armed robbers, John Grossklaus, 28, Larry Shaver, 28, and Whitney Kabiru, 23, worked together to gain access to the elderly man’s home. Kabiru approached the home and knocked on the elderly man’s door, asking to use his phone for an emergency. When he allowed her to enter, her accomplices, dressed in dark clothes, burst into the home, flashed a gun and demanded the homeowner surrender his valuables.

Rather than become a victim, the 80-year-old homeowner drew his own weapon and shot at the three armed robbers.

Fairmont Police found Shaver dressed in black lying in the road with a gunshot wound to his head and pronounced him dead at the scene. Grossklaus was found across the street shot in the torso. Kabiru fled the scene but is now in police custody.

“All the evidence that we’ve collected, all the statements that we’ve taken, they’ve all indicated that this was a self defense type situation,” said Chief Steve Shine of the Fairmont Police Department.

Authorities also speculate Shaver and Grossklaus were involved in other unsolved felonious crimes in the area and also confirmed the robbers’ weapon was a “realistic looking pellet or BB gun”.

“You gotta stay on your toes around here or you’ll end up hurt,” one neighbor said.

“It’s nothing new. As far as break-ins go, it happens a lot. But this time, someone walked into the wrong house,” said neighbor Alfred Bolling.

“We do have information that they believe this was an old man and that this was going to be an easy way for them to get stuff that wasn’t theirs,” Chief Shine said and admits he’ll soon have a gift for the old man. “I plan on buying him a box of bullets whenever this all gets cleared up.”

The police do not plan on pressing charges against the homeowner, but confirmed prosecutors will ultimately decide whether the shooting was a justifiable homicide.